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Make-up FCAT Contains Only Multiple Choice Items

Thousands of high school students across the state are getting another shot at Florida's graduation test this week, and some testing experts said it is easier than the one students originally failed.

The version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test administered this week -- primarily to juniors and seniors who failed to pass the test previously or who moved to the district after 10th grade -- contains only multiple-choice questions. The standard FCAT, given to all students in grades three through 10, contains open-ended questions in addition to multiple-choice ones.

''It makes a pretty big difference,'' said Seppy Basili, a vice president at the test-prep company Kaplan Inc., who has studied standardized testing. ``Open-ended questions tend to be the most challenging because on a multiple-choice test, the right answer is always right there.''

The multiple-choice-only test, being given for the first time, can be graded more quickly because the state does not need to hire crews of test-readers, said Cornelia Orr, head of testing for the State Department of Education. Results could be available in just five or six weeks instead of the usual eight to 10.

The short-answer questions are not being eliminated from the standard FCAT, Orr said. She also said that any cost savings from not hiring readers would be canceled out by the cost of developing the new exam. ''We are confident that the test will adequately test whether or not they have acquired the skills that they need to move on,'' said Frances Marine, spokeswoman for the Department of Education.

Marine did not know Wednesday how many 11th- and 12th-graders are taking the makeup exam, but around 21,000 were eligible in Miami-Dade, according to testing director Natalie Roca. This week's test is also open to roughly 12,000 people -- including 4,800 in Miami-Dade and 1,500 in Broward -- who finished high school last spring without passing the FCAT.

Teachers support open-ended questions because they force students to demonstrate more thorough understanding of the material, Orr said, and therefore drive a more nuanced curriculum. Such questions might ask students to explain a passage they just read or demonstrate how they calculated the answer to a math problem.

''It does remind students more of the work they've done in the classroom and reminds educators that they are preparing students to be more creative and expressive thinkers than just a multiple-choice format,'' said Stephen Kutno, a vice president for The Princeton Review, a test-prep company.

Outside that context, though, Kutno agreed with the state that a multiple-choice test is no easier, especially after the questions were adjusted to compensate for removing the short-answer items. ''It's called multiple-choice for a reason,'' Marine said. ``Just because the answer is among the choices does not mean it's more obvious than if the student had to write it out.''


— Matthew I. Pinzur
'Easier' FCAT given to those who'd failed
Miami Herald
2003-10-09
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/6967059.htm

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